Chapter 16: Coffee Date

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"Should I turn?" my inner thoughts are louder than usual.

He waved the very same poetry book that I am searching for.

"oh, Yesss"

"I was looking for this all over the store. It was the only copy left isn't it?"

I turned as I said, "Thank y.." without finishing it and swallowing my own saliva carefully.

"Ohh shit. Not him again"

"I should not have come. What is he even doing here? And the book? God"

My inner thoughts are running wild and I could not stop them at any range.

The silent talk between us longed enough, as he stood there staring at me and me on the other side being uncomfortable already.

"Are you alright?" Ian said with concern.

"Ahhh, yes. Yes", getting into my senses.

"You did not finish it"

"Finish, what??" I am not in my right mind at all.

"I thought you were saying thank you, to me" "for the book" he specified.

"ahhh, hihihihi, yeah I did" still not in my right mind, searching for words.

"I thought you would never come again, of what you said that day" he started digging into my thoughts.

"Me!!" "I don't remember saying anything about not coming back here" I definitely said something like that, at least made some configuration about it in my mind. But still, here I am.

"How you know that I was searching for this particular book?" And ask him what he is doing here in the first place. Ask him.

"That day when you fainted, you were reading this book. SOOO"

"Thought might take a look at it"

"I see" I finished short.

Ask him, Ivy. Ask him.

ASK HIM.

"What are you doing here?" I'm totally crazy. It is none of my business. Shit.

"Well..." he hesitated.

Did he follow me or something? "Tell me it's a coincident"

"Well, I'm not sure about that" what he meant by 'he is not sure' is a serial killer or something or psychopath maybe. Who follows people around, lure them into their bait, and kill them?

STOP OVERTHINKING, IVY. SHIIITTT.

"I am not quite getting?" I smiled.

"I'm the owner of this bookstore" he finished.

"What? I.... thought you're a singer"

"Yes, I am" "Why? Singers can't have their own bookstore stepping into business?" he teased.

"No, I did not mean like that. It's just weird" he was the owner of this bookstore the entire time. IAN PARKER IS THE OWNER. Ivy, what have you done? This is a very great embarrassment.

'Well, it looked the same to me" he teased again.

"I'm sorry if I offended you" I broke the conversation and started walking towards the cashier, in the hope that he would not remind me about the coffee token he mentions last time.

"But I still owe you" "you know, the coffee," he said. He said it. Where is this cashier gone? This is very bad timing. Not a good start for me.

"Yeah, I thought you were joking about that" "I mean, you don't really have to buy me coffee, you know. It is not really necessary" turned around and made it in a strict way possible.

"Well, we already made a deal, remember" HE REMINDED ME.

"Did we?" smiled in a weird way possible.

"Where is the cashier gone? What took her so long?"

"She is on leave. I'm in charge today" he took the book from my hand and swiped on the code bar detector. Put it nicely in the white plastic back which reads the title of the bookstore.

"Here you go. THANK YOU, for buying in our store"

"Now, it is time for the coffee date" he grabbed my hand without my acknowledgment and started walking.

"DATE? Wait I haven't paid for the book yet"

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